ANKARA, April 2 (News Agencies) - A state security court sentenced to death the head of a Muslim group for plotting to install a hardline Islamic regime in secular Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported Monday.
An Istanbul court held Salih Mirzabeyoglu, the head of the Islamic Front of Raiders of the Great Orient (IBDA-C), responsible for a series of violent attacks in a campaign to "destroy the constitutional order by force."
The offense carries the death penalty in mainly Muslim, but strictly secular, Turkey.
Two other IBDA-C members were sentenced to 18 years in prison each for being members of an illegal organization, Anatolia said.
Mirzabeyoglu, who was put in jail in 1998, denies any links with the IBDA-C.
Last June, he attempted to hang himself in his cell, but was stopped by prison authorities.
Turkish authorities say IBDA-C, founded in 1985, is responsible for a number of bomb attacks on bars, discotheques and churches in Istanbul.
The group had declared 1999 the "Year of Conquest" in its campaign to replace Turkey's secular system with a hardline Islamic regime, according to police.
Turkey's parliament, which has to approve executions, has observed a de facto moratorium on carrying out death sentences since 1984.
